The Things We Missed
by jmfossil
Summary: Sometimes, something so good has to stay secret to stay so good.


_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own any of the characters in the Harry Potter universe; they go to J.K. Rowling. And all Hogwarts Daily characters are owned by their respectful players._

**A/N:** All I can say is that I wanted closure. Enjoy.

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**The Things We Missed**

_Love ceases to be a pleasure, when it ceases to be a secret.  
-Aphra Behn_

"All right, this box is done."

The sun was still shining brightly in the summer sky. The waves were pleasantly crashing on the shore down below. Birds were squawking in the air, circling the water for fish to catch for lunch. One seagull, having caught its meal, flew past a building on a hill by the river, a three-story watermill. The warm French sun shed light into the watermill's attic, giving the man and woman inside sufficient lighting to do their job.

"I can't get over how Adam turned this place into his house."

"Medieval French watermill converted into a five bedroom, three bath abode for himself. It was his proudest work."

Ty sifted through a new, smaller box labeled 'Gifts'. He pulled out a pair of navy socks with inverted pink triangles stitched in. He let out a hollow laugh, pocketed them into his robes, and continued sorting through the carton.

"Ty, are sure you're okay to do this?"

"Hmm?" Ty turned to look at her over his shoulder. "What'd you say, Lav?"

Lavender sighed. "It's just… you haven't been yourself lately." She picked up the box Ty had just finished with and set it aside, all the while playing with her dragon heartstring necklace. "Ever since the funeral… you've barely said two words to anybody for the past week."

"That's not true. I said 'All right, this box is done.'" Ty held up six fingers. "Six words."

A genuine chuckle escaped her lips. As she untangled the shrunken dragon tooth from her golden chain, she smiled, "Well that's a slight improvement."

Ty returned to the box in front of him, now coming up with a lifeless Golden Snitch in his hands. "I know I shouldn't be… withdrawing, but… it's hard, you know?" He let out a short breath. "I mean, I had my birthday cheesecake at the Malkins' funeral home, watching his body be embalmed."

"…I know."

He came up with a book: _Photography for the Modern Wizard_. It joined the Snitch in the box marked 'KEEP'. "…Thanks for coming with me, by the way."

"Of course." Lavender sat down on the floor next to Ty amidst the sea of cardboard. Looking out the circular window, watching the seagulls soar outside, Lavender mused, "I was a little surprised though that you asked me instead of Elijah."

"I told him I wanted to take care of Adam's things alone."

"Why?" asked Lavender.

"He… doesn't know how to handle these things very well." Another book. _Wizards Are From Mars, Witches Are From Venus _was unceremoniously thrown into the 'THROW OUT' box.

Lavender had pulled up the last container. 'Lance' was written on it in Adam's scrawl. As she opened it, she said, "Some people are like that, I suppose."

Ty merely hummed in agreement.

Once he was finished with the 'Gifts' box, he went down to the kitchen to make himself some food. Ty didn't eat that morning. Lavender offered profusely to share her breakfast croissant at the Plaza Athénée in Paris, earlier that morning, but each time, he declined. Ever since he heard that Adam died, he could barely eat anything, but now that he was here, in Adam's house, he somehow felt in touch with his godfather again. Everything in it reminded Ty of him. Now that he was slowly returning to normal, he began to feel the growling hunger in his stomach.

He waved his wand once and the ingredients flew out of the cupboards, pantry, and the refrigerator. Before he pieced his sandwich together, he carefully checked to make sure the food wasn't spoiled. It had been almost a month since Adam was last in his house.

His phone rang. In the middle of layering on the sourdough, Ty pulled out his LG Prada phone from his robes and answered it. "Hi, Ken." He put on some procciutto. "No, I'm still in Provence." A slice of provolone. "I get back in four days. My flight's with Air France." A bit of romano. "It's pronounced 'Floo'. No, I'm not. It's messy using the Floo nowadays." He topped off the sandwich with another slice of sourdough. "Fashion Week's in a few days after, so they'll be expecting me at _Vague_ immediately when I get back. Just give all the your editorial pieces to Scotty. He'll know what to do with them."

A wave of his wand, and his sandwich became a hot, pressed panini. "I love you, too. Bye." Ty took some kitchen parchment and wrapped his sandwich in it and took a bite. For the first time in a while, he smiled. He had learned the recipe and the spell from Adam.

Just as he was about to take his second bite, Lavender's voice rang from the attic down three stories, yelling, "Ty! I think you should have a look at this!"

Ty set down the panini on a plate and started for the stairs. He stopped midway and ran back down to grab the sandwich and a bottle of Perrier. "Coming!"

"There you are," Lavender said as she saw Ty appear at the stairs with a sparkling water and food in hand. "I see you're starting to feel like yourself again."

He gave a noncommittal shrug, but Lavender saw that the glint in his eye was returning. "What's up?" he asked, sitting next to her in front of the box marked 'Lance'. In Lavender's hands was a small, rather thick, leather-skinned journal.

"It's dragon skin," explained Lavender, seeing that Ty was observing the cover. "I can't seem to open it, though." She demonstrated, prying the book apart. It didn't budge a centimeter.

"I've never seen anything like that…" Ty set down the Perrier and panini on an upturned box and gave the book a go. Nothing. He took a pair of scissors and attempted to wedge it in between the pages, but the metal couldn't even pierce the paper. "That's strange…"

Lavender scratched her temple. "I've seen one before. At least, I think I have," she added as Ty gave her a curious expression. "My mother wanted one of these, I think. I was probably in third or fourth year… She took me shopping before school in Diagon Alley, and she bartered for one but the man wouldn't accept her final offer."

"So these things are rather expensive then," surmised Ty as he looked at the dragon skin. It gave a bit of a shine, like patent leather only fainter. He ran his hand over its rippling cobalt-colored surface. "Did your mum or the seller mention how to open these?"

She shook her head. "He never explicitly said anything, I don't think. All I can remember him saying was that 'the dragon is the key' or something of the sort." Lavender ran her hand through her long blonde locks and threw her hair over to one shoulder. "Let's leave it. There's loads of other stuff we still have to--"

"Wait."

Ty reached for Lavender's dragon heartstring necklace. His fingers delicately touched the string around her neck. "What're you…" Lavender began, but she trailed off.

"'The dragon is the key'… Could you take that off for a minute, please?" She did so. "Where did you get this?" Ty asked, studying the necklace.

"Charlie gave it to me. After the funeral, right after you asked me to come to France with you. I just thought it was an impromptu gift. It was the first time I had seen him in months…"

Ty lay the journal flat on the floor, noticing a small grove in the dragon skin. It matched the shape of the tooth on Lavender's necklace. With a furrowed brow, Ty pressed the tooth into the indentation. It fit perfectly. He tugged at the heartstring and the journal opened easily to the first page.

"Oh my God," breathed Ty, marveling at the magic of the diary.

But that's not what Lavender was looking at. "That's odd…" said Lavender. "'_This journal belongs to Charles Lancelot Weasley_'," she read.

Ty's brow only furrowed even more. "I don't understand… Charlie gave this journal to Adam?"

"Passed it on, I guess," replied Lavender, taking the diary and flicking over to the very first entry. It was tattered, very old. Seventeen years old. "'_20 July 1991. Finally here in Romania, and finally free from the crazy ol' fam. It's bloody gorgeous. Bought this at a market fair for a galleon! I reckon this one will last me ages. Gotta run. There's a fine bloke up the street looking at scarves. Let's see if the Romanian fellows are as randy as they say they are. I'm a little bit horny, Charlie._'"

He laughed. It felt strange to laugh again, but he welcomed the emotion. "The scarf story."

Lavender was smiling, too. "It's almost like I can hear his voice reading this." Ty nodded in agreement. "But that's a bit strange, don't you think? Why would Charlie give his journal to Adam? He can't have just given it to him." She flipped through the diary, page by page. Her eyes widening, she saw the slightly obvious pattern. "Each entry is about a chap he sleeps with!" exclaimed Lavender.

"It's his black book!" laughed Ty. "Wow, I never thought he'd pass on something this… personal, to say the least. To Adam, no less."

Lavender continued reading excerpts from each entry. "…'_Fun with Rami on the back of one of the Horntails while in flight. Lesson learned: you can lose all feeling in your cock at measurements of three thousand feet._' I hope he's talking about altitude."

They laughed. As Lavender read, Ty explored the 'Lance' box. It was empty, save for one thing: a photo album.

This one wasn't covered in dragon skin. It was one of his usual black leather albums, the kind Adam used for his photography. Stamped across the front was 'Charlie Weasley' in bright silver lettering. Ty opened it and he was greeted by a cheerful image of Charlie, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. The Charlie in the photograph winked and teased, and with a laugh, Ty turned the page. He continued through the towel session, and onto a photoshoot in the backyard at the Burrow. There were more moving pictures, but there was another shoot, a Muggle one. It was at a studio with still photography, a fashion spread.

But before Ty could turn the page again, Lavender whispered, "Ty, look at this."

"Hmm?" He put down the album.

"This entry's different than the others." Lavender scooted closer and propped the journal on both their laps. "'_11 September 2001. America's having a bad day. The attacks at their World Trade Center have got me shaken up. Thank Merlin I left that dragon-rallying assignment in Vermont two days ago. I Apparated to Adam's place in France once I heard. Our friend Grant died in the attack. We were a mess, me more so than him._' That's awful…" Her voice was breaking slightly.

Ty continued reading. "'_He said not to worry. That he would take care of everything. It just made me realize how he's been there at my side all this time._'" He bottom lip trembling, Ty ran his finger down to the bottom of the page. The last line stood alone. "Oh my God…"

"What?" asked Lavender, holding back tears.

"'_I love him._'"

"…No way." Lavender reread the entry from top to bottom as Ty took the album once again and turned the page.

There it was. The photograph had a sleeping Charlie, lacking clothing but wrapped in the bed sheets. Into the frame then entered Adam, clad only in his boxer briefs, slipping under the covers with Charlie, dozing off into sleep as well. There was a date. Below the picture, in delicate script, the sapphire ink read, "11 September 2001."

"They were boyfriends?" Lavender looked at Ty with the biggest face of confusion. "How did we not know this?"

"What's the date?" Ty read the page on the diary. His eyes landed back and forth between the date on the diary and on the album. "For seven years, they kept their relationship a secret? …I had always known they had gotten close, but… I never expected them to be in a relationship," pondered Ty almost incredulously. "They never acted like it, and they always just seemed to be good friends…"

"'_7 June 2006,_'" began Lavender. "'_Ty and Ken announced their engagement. Everyone was at the party, Ginny, Lavender, Elijah, everyone. We gave them the bottle of dragon-brewed merlot; Ty said it was wonderful. Adam's incredibly happy for them, and so am I. They make a great couple, and the ring is a stunner. Makes me wonder if Addie and I will be tying the knot._'"

Ty sat speechless, mulling the idea over in his head. He sighed and took the Perrier on the box and took a drink. "Well he certainly wrote like his boyfriend."

"Wait, there's more," said Lavender, moving on to the other side of the page. "'_I think it'll happen. Adam asked me if I wanted to move in with him. But not in his flat in London, but to France, in his house in Provence. Of course, I said yes._'" She paused. "They had this entire life together right under our noses and we didn't even notice."

"But why keep it private?" A twang of frustration sounded in Ty's voice. "We cleaned this house, and there's no single piece of evidence that Charlie lived here. Why hide? It's not like they weren't out to their families, the Order…" He stopped for a moment. "The Order."

"'_1 August 2006,_'" started Lavender, as if responding to Ty's train of thought. "'_We celebrated Adam's 39__th__ today. He says it's his last year of being young and fit, but to me, he only gets more gorgeous with every year. But our dinner was cut short by an owl Bill sent. The Order's dispatching Adam on another mission. He says he can't bear to leave me. He makes me feel like the damsel; it's a nice change. I don't want him to go, but we both love what we do for the Order._'"

A hand went up to Ty's forehead. He knew that married couples were fully welcomed in the Order, but they were given more domestic missions, and Adam preferred the adventure, the thrill. "They didn't want to give up their duties for the Order."

Lavender looked up, and Ty saw fury building in her eyes. "Why? It's not like they needed the money or anything," she stated, nearing anger. "Charlie had dragon-keeper money, and Adam had his photography-- and this house!" Tears welled in her eyes. "Why did they have to run off all the time for the fucking Order?!" she exclaimed. Before she could say anything else, Ty enveloped her in a deep embrace. Ty's hushing kept Lavender from bursting any more.

"Adam loved what he did. And so did Fred."

Lavender's slight crying evolved into deep heaving sobs.

Ty appeared at the top of the steps again, coming from the fireplace in Adam's master suite. He was carrying another bottle of Perrier in his hand and was dusting Floo powder off his shoulders.

"I just Floo-phoned Bill," Ty told Lavender. "He says Charlie's been locked in his room for a week now. Won't even come out to have food." He took a seat next to Lavender who offered him what was left of Ty's panini. "Last time anyone saw him was the funeral." He took a bite.

"I don't blame him."

"Feeling better?"

Lavender inhaled greatly and breathed. "A little bit. The sandwich helped." Ty offered her the new bottle of sparkling water and she accepted with a thank you. "I was just looking through this album." She gave the open album to Ty to look through.

"It's weird. They kept all this hidden away from us, but looking at the pictures, it's a beautiful life." She pointed at pictures. "That's them at the beach out there in August 2002. Adam's birthday. And there's them at Le Marais in Paris. October. And then Charlie's birthday in December."

"It's real." Ty's heart lightened at the fact that Adam finally found someone to totally settle down with, but the perplexity still lingered.

Ty returned the album to Lavender when she thought aloud, "I'll never understand how they can be in love but still love the Order."

He knew she wasn't only referring to Adam and Charlie. Ty picked up the journal again after finishing the food and drink. He tugged at the heartstring again and skimmed the diary over to the pages of 2007. Charlie's entries were always short, very concise. But his sex accounts were more frequent and consistent. His entries once he was with Adam, however, were relatively far apart, almost once a month. Ty stopped at an entry in the month of November. It was longer than usual. It read:

'_8 November 2007 _

_After the first wedding was canceled, Ty and Ken finally got married. For real. It was an exquisite Wizarding wedding in London. They said that the Muggle union ceremony would happen tomorrow. Ty never settled for anything less, and everything was gorgeous. He and Ken looked rather dashing if I do say so myself. They don't beat Adam though. Though I had to help him get into his formal robes. It was strange helping him put on clothes instead of ripping them off him._

_They're so in love, and seeing them finally get married after all these years, it gives me hope. Hope that Adam and I could one day find that peace of mind. We love each other. We love our jobs for the Order. It makes me feel alive. The missions, the duels, the danger, the idea that you're doing good in the world. It's why I joined in the first place._

_And Adam makes me feel alive, too. His laugh, his little fits, his smile, the way he looks at me with those hazelnut eyes. I know I want to marry him. And at this point, with each passing day, I care less and less about the Order and more and more about Adam._

_I'm going to go with my instincts, and I'm going to propose. Someday._

_ A man in love,_

_Charlie_'

Ty could feel his heart sink. Lavender had begun to read along as well, midway through. "That hurts." She wiped her nose with a handkerchief. "What's the next one say?"

He turned the page. The page was slightly crumpled. Ty tried to make sense of the hastily scribbled writing of the final entry. The ink was wet before it was closed, proven by the ink marks on the blank page across it. It was dated six months later, a month ago.

"'_6 May 2008. I'm proposing tonight. Charlie._'"

"Wasn't that…?"

"The night Adam was owled for his last dispatch."

"…It doesn't say if he accepted or not." Lavender scanned the rest of the diary, but there was only one other page left. It was a thicker sheet of parchment than the rest, with a pale goldenrod tint. "Nothing. All that's left is the back cover page."

Ty and Lavender looked at each other. Their faces were indescribable. But all they could feel was that emotion of sincere loss. They hugged.

The 'Lance' box was the very last one they needed to sort. After they Vanished all the unneeded boxes and cleaned out the attic, the rest of the afternoon was spent carefully examining the album and diary. When Lavender would study the journal, Ty observed the photos, and vice versa. They tried everything they could to find any sign or hint to whether Adam accepted Charlie's proposal or not, but even Ty's strongest Revealing Charm came up with nothing.

It read five-thirty on Ty's Movado watch. Lavender and Ty had a business dinner at seven in Paris involving Brownbury expanding over into a Muggle market, so they needed to get back to their hotel. Lavender was Spell-o-Tape-ing the box called 'DONATE' close and Ty gathered his messenger bag and Lavender's tote.

"That's the last of it." Lavender stood up and dusted off her hands. The late afternoon light showed that she had been crying profusely. The mascara on her lashes was washed away.

Ty appeared emotionally exhausted as well. His nose was still a vivid pink from all the sniffling and his eyes were red. He waved his wand in a figure eight, and all the remaining boxes, 'KEEP', 'DONATE', and 'PASS ON', shrunk to the size of Rubix cubes and flew into Ty's bag. "That's it then."

"That's it," repeated Lavender, nodding. Her voice sounded a smidge stronger now that they were finished going through the emotional minefield. "So are we taking care of the property business tomorrow?"

"No, actually," answered Ty, his voice slightly lighter as well. "It's all processed. Steven said that Adam left the house to me in his will. He passed on his entire estate to me, once I'm of age. Which I am."

Lavender frowned, "Who's Steven?"

"His brother."

"Oh, I just thought… Another new drama." She waved a hand around.

Ty actually chuckled. "No, Steven's drama-free. He's a great guy. Lives in Spain with his family. He came to England the day after Adam… died."

With a concerned look, Lavender advised, "You don't have to if you're not ready."

Ty nodded. "I do. I'm in mourning, so I have to face it."

As an attempt to change the subject, though it was a related topic, Lavender queried, "You're going to keep the house?" They began to descend the stairs to the second floor.

"Yeah," replied Ty. "I can use it. I can stay here for whenever I'm in the country for business, so that'll cut some expense from _Vague_'s budget, and besides… I like to think that Adam lives on through this house."

Lavender smiled. "That's sweet." Once they were on the second-floor landing, she ran her hands over a pine console table in the hallway, made by Adam himself. Ty was right. It gave off that same warm feeling of Adam's presence.

"That and the house is bloody fabulous."

She laughed. "Sounds like you feel loads better."

"Getting there. How about you?"

Lavender started going down the stairs to the ground floor, and she turned over her shoulder to answer him. "…Getting there."

When they arrived at the bottom of the steps, they made sure to clean up the kitchen. Ty had made two more paninis to help them feel better earlier. Ty set down the diary on the island in the middle, next to the sink. He was putting away a dragon-brewed merlot in the wine cellar when Lavender noticed something on the journal.

She picked it up and turned the journal over to the back of it. There was something she missed this afternoon. A different indentation on the back. It was shaped just like the one on the front, but it was inverted. She ran a finger over it.

Flipping her hair back, Lavender undid the clasp of the dragon heartstring necklace, placed the tooth into the inverted grove, and tugged. It opened. She flipped through the pages, her breath caught in her throat. They were all blank. All of Charlie's entries were gone, the sex records, the accounts with Adam, all of it vanished off the pages. Except for one entry on the very last page.

Lavender read quickly from one side to the other and sped down to the last lines of the entry. Her eyes widened and she sped off into the wine cellar, calling Ty's name. The journal lay on the kitchen counter, open to the entry.

'_7 May 2008_

_It's my first time writing in this. It's certainly a clever book, I'll give him that. Safe and secure with secret pages. I wonder where he got this._

_Anyway, it's my final dispatch mission today. I'm more excited than usual for some reason. Like my very first mission eons ago. I'm being sent to Rome. They needed an Arithmancer to infiltrate plus I'm already here in France. It's almost a stone's throw away. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm more ecstatic about how this is my last dispatch. My last mission for the Order. Ever._

_It's Ty's birthday in a couple of weeks. I still need to get him a gift, but Charlie said he'd take care of it. He also made me breakfast this morning; he makes the best eggs. And he said he'd take care of all the mail, all the work the house needed, everything while I'm gone. It's amazing we've lasted this long and we've never told anyone we were together. But that's soon going to change._

_I've grown to love him so much more than I could have ever imagined. I love Charlie, and I can't wait to marry him._

_ A man in love,_

_ Adam_'

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**A/N:** Comments, feedback, reviews, **_constructive_** (I cannot emphasize that enough) criticism... anything is appreciated. Thank you.


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